SF police look for 3 men accused of hate crimes

Police in San Francisco are looking for three men who attacked two people. One of those attacks happened in the Castro District. They were assaults apparently motivated by hate.

The first attack happened March 29th in the 400 block of Castro and the second came April 7th near the intersection of Market and Gough. One of the attacks happened at 2:30 a.m. and about a week later the second one happened around 11 p.m.

"In both incidents, the suspects attacked the victims and yelled homophobic remarks and the investigators believe they're the same suspects in both of these incidents," said San Francisco Police Officer Gordon Shyy.

Joshua Shaw lives and works near the Market and Gough assault.

"My wife walks out on the street here, goes down to the grocery store whatever late at night and we feel no particular fear or worry," said resident Joshua Shaw.

Shaw isn't really surprised these hate crimes still happen, but said, "I'm a little surprised such things still happen in San Francisco in this late day, but obviously that's a terrible thing."

I caught up with Josh Blackburn in the Castro. He lives up the hill in the Diamond Heights area. He said, "Yeah, it's pretty surprising because I usually feel pretty safe in the Castro."

In fact, he hasn't had any problems in the Castro. "A few times a few friends of mine have actually gotten to some skirmishes over towards the Mission, Dolores park, but nothing so far as down here and into the Castro district."

Police want to get these suspects off the streets. All three men are described as either Hispanic or white or Hispanic, and they spoke with an East Coast or foreign accent.

Anyone with information about the suspects or who may have been victims of a similar incident are asked to call the Police Department's special investigations division at (415) 553-1133.

People wishing to remain anonymous can also call a tip line at (415) 575-4444 or send a tip by text message to TIP411.